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“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,whose confidence is in Him.They will be like a tree planted by the waterthat sends out its roots by the stream.It does not fear when heat comes;its leaves are always green.It has no worries in a year of droughtand never fails to bear fruit.”

–Jeremiah 17:7-8

Am I trusting in the Lord?

Is my confidence in Him?

When the heat comes, the tree with its roots in position to receive water from the stream will not fail to thrive.

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Do you ever want to run away from God?
Maybe it’s that you are so desperate you just want to run somewhere, but you’re afraid—or maybe ashamed—to run TO God, so you run somewhere else.
The problem is, if you’re not running to God, you’re running away from Him.
And if you leave God, where could you go?
John 6:66-68 reads:

From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
Desperation.

Shame.

Guilt.

Fear.
No matter what you are experiencing, running to God is the only good choice.
He will accept you because He loves you.

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1. A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.

I must admit, I have never thought of hope, a wish or a desire in this way.

Hope gives joy.

As I pray, I am hopeful.

Trusting that God hears my heart in prayer, there is hope for the answer.

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Driving home this evening, the sun was on the horizon as dusk was fast approaching.

Another day would soon be past.

How many sunsets have I seen in my life?

God has blessed me with the beauty and grandeur of more than I remember.

Year after year, He has been faithful to me, whether I understood it at the time, or not.

Year after year, He has known the longings of my heart.

He has answered prayers, given me guidance, and restored me from illnesses both great and small.

God has also protected me from dangers that I recognized and from those that I was never even aware of.

He knows the deep desires of my heart for the salvation of those I love and the restoration of broken relationships.

While reading tonight about the healing of a man by Jesus, His question to the man went straight to my heart–“Do you want to get well?”

The man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

Thirty-eight years…

Then, suddenly, he was healed.

Walking.

Completely whole.

Only the evening before, the sun had set as it had for thousands of times in his life, finding him to be unable to walk.

But not on this day–

This was the day of freedom.

The day of answered prayer for healing.

The day of salvation.

The day of restoration.

What have you been longing for?

Has it been thirty-eight years?

Twenty years?

Ten?

God is able to answer your deepest cries in prayer.

Do you want to get well?

Do you want others to get well?

Continue praying for them.

Tomorrow may yet be the day of healing…

~~~~

Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

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If you call an emergency number, a fire truck with trained, professional people will be at your side in a matter of minutes to take care of you.

Right?

Well, probably 99 percent of the time.

What about that other 1 percent?

It’s not because they don’t want to come to your rescue. It’s because they can’t.

Maybe there’s a blizzard going on with high snow drifts and impassable roads.

Maybe there’s a hurricane or tornado happening.

Maybe all the fire trucks available are already helping others in need at a different location.

While we can take comfort in the fact that 99 percent of the time someone at the fire department will respond to our call of distress, we know down deep in our hearts that there’s always the possibility that they might not be able to.

It’s different with God.

He is there for us 100 percent of the time.

He hears our prayers immediately.

He doesn’t have to travel to get to you or me.

Though it’s hard to comprehend, He is right with us all the time.

There are no flashing lights or sirens.

Just the presence of God with power to heal, transform and comfort.

Blizzards and snow drifts can’t keep Him away.

Hurricanes?

Tornados?

No problem.

He commands the wind and the rain.

And what if He’s already helping a million other people who are crying out to Him?

In one scene, the screenwriters skilfully send a pang of familiarity to the audience.

As the main character is asked if he is afraid, a flash back occurs in his mind of an incident in his childhood.

There he is, on the playground, holding a single flower in his hands. As he approaches a little girl to present the flower to, he is met by the intimidating voices of other children making fun of him. As they shun him, they all run away, leaving him alone, holding his flower without ever having the chance to offer it.

The character in the movie then (after the flashback) replies that he is not afraid, yet the viewers understand that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He still feels the weight of the childhood intimidation even now as an adult.

Feeling unsure of himself, he does not want to endure rejection again.

I researched the word, “intimidation.”

I found a couple of definitions to be very interesting. One definition states, “inducing a sense of inferiority into another.”

The next descriptive definition is, “implies a reduction to a state where the spirit is broken.”

When I think of the movie scene–one that I think most anyone can identify with–these definitions are spot on.

This morning, I read from a devotional book that I have been using in my Bible study time. Today’s topic was on several scriptures concerning the words we say to each other.

Kind words.

Hurtful words.

Encouraging words or discouraging words.

Each of us gets to decide what words we say.

We all know what it feels like to hear hurtful words.

We also know what it’s like to hear encouraging and kind words.

I get to decide what I want to say.

So do you.

~

Whoever puts down another is not wise, but one who knows better keeps quiet.